ARCserve®: More than Backup

CA Technologies recently commissioned independent research* to explore global organizations’ experiences of IT downtime and data recovery. In North America, 200 organizations across a variety of company sizes and segments were surveyed. Analysis of these organizations has provided insight on the impact of downtime on:

• financial performance
• productivity levels
• hidden costs such as damage to brand/reputation, failure to meet compliance commitments and loss of customer loyalty

Key Research Findings :

Financial Performance

• On average, North American businesses are losing $159,331 per year through IT downtime and data recovery.
• The average North American company suffers at least 10 hours of IT downtime per year.
• During these periods when business critical systems are interrupted, companies estimate that the ability to generate revenue is reduced by 29%.

Coleman Parkes Research firm interviewed 200 North American companies across the financial services, manufacturing, retail, and public sector. Per year, on average: • Financial Services Organizations lose $224,000 + in revenue • Manufacturing Organizations lose $ 196,000+ in revenue • Retail Organizations lose $117,000+ in revenue • Public Sector Organizations lose $99,000+ in revenue	The 200 companies interviewed include representation from small (50-499 employees), medium (500-999 employees), and large (1000+ employees) sized organizations. Per year, on average: • Small sized companies lose $55,000+ in revenue • Medium sized companies lose $91,000+ in revenue • Large sized companies lose $1M+ in revenue

Productivity Levels

• Post IT downtime (i.e. when IT systems are up and running), there’s an additional delay of 7.5 hours per year at each firm, during which time data is still being recovered and business operations aren’t fully operational.
• The average North American organization loses 425 person hours per year through IT downtime.
  

The average global organization loses 545 person hours per year through IT downtime. Those organizations in North America lose 425 person hours. Large and small companies both lose more than the average number of person hours per year through outages (614 and 573 person hours respectively). Medium sized companies only lose an average of 378 person hours per year.

Hidden costs

• 48% of companies believe downtime negatively impacts their brand and reputation.
• Over 34% of companies would be unable to meet compliance and regulatory commitments due to downtime.
• 44% of respondents believe IT downtime can damage staff morale and 35% report it can harm customer loyalty.

Could this affect your business? 66% of companies do not have a disaster recovery strategy in place.

*Research carried out by Coleman Parkes Research Ltd.